A jubilant Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has welcomed passage of six important pieces of legislation in Parliament to ensure the US$20 billion Papua LNG Project in Gulf goes ahead.
He said this at a press conference flanked by Petroleum Minister Hon. Kerenga Kua and Gulf Governor Hon. Chris Haiveta.
“Today is good news for the country,” he said.
“The laws have finally been cleared and Papua LNG is set to move very soon when the (French oil-gas major) TOTAL executives come in and we jointly release a statement on what takes place from this stage onwards.”
Parliament overwhelmingly voted to pass the six bills:
- Income Tax (Papua LNG Project) (Amendment) Bill 2020;
- Stamp Duties (Papua LNG Project) (Amendment) Bill 2020;
- Insurance (Papua LNG Project) (Amendment) Bill 2020
- Oil and Gas (Papua LNG Project Production Levy) (Amendment) Act 2020;
- Tax (Papua LNG Project) Production Levy) (Amendment) Act 2020; and
- Income Tax (Papua LNG Project Thin Capitalisation) (Amendment) Act 2020.
Prime Minister Marape said passage of the bills would actually allow for TOTAL to move in and start work.
“At this juncture, let me also announce that a high-level delegation of TOTAL executives will be visiting the country in the next two weeks or so, if transition in Singapore gives clearance,” he said.
“We will now start to engage and put a clear roadmap about Papua LNG going forward.
“Papua LNG is an important project for us.
“PNG LNG was able to grow our GDP and our economic base quite substantially:
From what was previously a K30—K40 billion economy in 2007 to a K90 billion economy in 2014 up to today.
“Papua LNG is a US$20 billion project that has every opportunity to ensure that our economy is given the huge stimulus needed, during construction phase as well as eventual production of the two trains that will be the Papua LNG.”
Prime Minister Marape said that he was a “hard negotiator” in all resource projects for best benefits for the people.
“That is not to say that we are disrespectful of our investors,” he said.
“There’s a place for us to win, and there’s a place for investors to win, based on open-book modelling and based on returns to investment that is industry best-practice or global best-practice.
“So whilst I negotiate hard for the country, I also am a fair man, and I understand where investors will win and where the country must win in as far as winning for our people is concerned.”
Prime Minister Marape was happy that while there had been agreements signed already, his Government was able to press hard and secure additional benefits while maintaining TOTAL, Exxon Mobil and Oil Search in the country.
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